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continuation from the previous post.
another digital camera i recently purchased is the nikon d2h. released as a professional dslr in 2003 and had a price tag of $5k. i was able to find one in near-mint condition with a shutter count of less than 500(!, 493 to be exact), for $240 shipped. also included was a battery charger and a near-dead battery pack. the good thing about the battery pack is that i can dismantle it and replace 18650 batteries contained within. the shutter count surprised me, as the camera's original listing only mentioned "less than 15k actuations". serial number also indicates a very late production, so hopefully the shutter/meter issues that have plagued this model have been smoothed out by then.
the nikon d2h has an aps-c[/nikon dx] sized sensor that produces a whopping 4.1 megapixel image. the sensor itself is a unique one, nikon calls it a `jfet lbcast` sensor, and claims that it is neither a ccd sensor or a cmos sensor. though, the design seems to indicate that it errs more towards a cmos sensor. this is partly the reason why i purchased this camera. i also like jfets.
another reason is the huge pixel pitch of 9.58 micron. gives that old school, nearest-neighbor aliasing-powerhouse, digital medium format feel without the need to carry around a chunkier, and inherently more pricey, medium format camera system. for reference, a lot of current-day full-frame sensor cameras are providing 40+ megapixels of resolution, which results in a pixel pitch of 4.63 micron and lower. great for detailed professional work (can create gigantic detailed prints), but gives a different feel. all this in my opinion, of course, the feel/aesthetic mentioned in this paragraph is subjective.
a third reason for the purchase was so that i can use my old nikon lenses from my film days, that of which have been in storage/unused for the past ~20 years. up until the past couple of months, and rather surprisingly, i have never owned a digital interchangeable lens camera body, dslr or mirrorless. the d2h was the last of the three cameras i've purchased, but i have been playing with it the most for this reason. it's so great to be reunited with these lenses.
the last reason (all these reasons given are in no particular order of priority), is the d2h's color rendition. particularly the color filters used in the sensor's filter stack. no info seems to be available on the specs, but i find the colors produced to be more pleasing to the eye, particularly with the addition of the in-camera jpeg processing or with nikon's proprietary software, if shooting and converting raw files.
the photos in this post are straight-out-of-camera jpegs with the exception of downsizing to a bandwidth/space-saving 640px width on my desktop computer (this is the small web, after all).
as a side note, i finally purchased a couple of cheap generic lens hoods (35mm or greater equivalent focal length) for my nikon lenses:
i originally planned (and somewhat still do) on purchasing the oem lens hoods, they can be quite rare to come across, if not priced multiple times more than they should be. these generic hoods are wonderful. they aren't flanged at the end, so they allow for a lens cap to be placed at the end of the hood, while the hood is installed on the lens. quite revolutionary to me, at least; all lens oem hoods i've experienced since my film days, from my own cameras to trying out a friend's film or digital interchangeable lens camera, had lenses with lens hoods that didn't accept a lens cap on the outer rim of the lens hood. some hoods didn't even allow for a cap to be placed on the lens itself, unless the hood was removed or reversed.
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bix